Chris Hedges's Blog, page 615

Milos Forman, Oscar-Winning Director, Dies at 86

LOS ANGELES—Czech filmmaker Milos Forman, whose American movies “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus” won a deluge of Academy Awards, including best director Oscars, died Saturday. He was 86.

Forman died about 2 a.m. Saturday at Danbury Hospital, near his home in Warren, Connecticut, according to a statement released by the former director’s agent, Dennis Aspland. Aspland said Forman’s wife, Martina, notified him of the death.

When Forman arrived in Hollywood in the late 1960s, he was lacking in both money and English skills, but carried a portfolio of Czechoslovakian films much admired internationally for their quirky, lighthearted spirit. Among them were “Black Peter,” ”Loves of a Blonde” and “The Fireman’s Ball.”

The orphan of Nazi Holocaust victims, Forman had abandoned his homeland after communist troops invaded in 1968 and crushed a brief period of political and artistic freedom known as the Prague Spring.

In America, his record as a Czech filmmaker was enough to gain him entree to Hollywood’s studios, but his early suggestions for film projects were quickly rejected. Among them were an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel “Amerika” and a comedy starring entertainer Jimmy Durante as a wealthy bear hunter in Czechoslovakia.

After his first U.S. film, 1971’s “Taking Off,” flopped, Forman didn’t get a chance to direct a major feature again for years. He occupied himself during part of that time by covering the decathlon at the 1972 Olympics for the documentary “Visions of Eight.”

“Taking Off,” an amusing look at generational differences in a changing America, had won praise from critics who compared it favorably to Forman’s Czech films. But without any big-name stars it quickly tanked at the box office.

Actor Michael Douglas gave Forman a second chance, hiring him to direct “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” which Douglas was co-producing.

The 1975 film, based on Ken Kesey’s novel about a misfit who leads mental institution inmates in a revolt against authority, captured every major Oscar at that year’s Academy Awards, the first film to do so since 1934″s “It Happened One Night.”

The winners included Jack Nicholson as lead actor, Louise Fletcher as lead actress, screenwriters Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben, Forman as director and the film itself for best picture.

The director, who worked meticulously, spending months with screenwriters and overseeing every aspect of production, didn’t release another film until 1979’s “Hair.”

The musical, about rebellious 1960s-era American youth, appealed to a director who had witnessed his own share of youthful rebellion against communist repression in Czechoslovakia. But by the time it came out, America’s brief period of student revolt had long since faded, and the public wasn’t interested.

“Ragtime” followed in 1981. The adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel, notable for Forman’s ability to persuade his aging Connecticut neighbor Jimmy Cagney to end 20 years of retirement and play the corrupt police commissioner, also was a disappointment.

Forman returned to top form three years later, however, when he released “Amadeus.”

Based on Peter Shaffer’s play, it portrayed 18th century musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a foul-mouthed man-child, with lesser composer Salieri as his shadowy nemesis. It captured seven Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor (for F. Murray Abraham as Salieri).

Hunting for locations, Forman realized Prague was the only European capital that had changed little since Mozart’s time, but returning there initially filled him with dread.

His parents had died in a Nazi concentration camp when he was 9. He had been in Paris when the communists crushed the Prague Spring movement in 1968, and he hadn’t bothered to return home, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1975.

The Czech government, realizing the money to be made by letting “Amadeus” be filmed in Prague, allowed Forman to come home, and the public hailed his return.

“There was an enormous affection for us doing the film,” he remarked in 2002. “The people considered it a victory for me that the authorities had to bow to the almighty dollar and let the traitor back.”

Never prolific, Forman’s output slowed even more after “Amadeus,” and his three subsequent films were disappointments.

“Valmont” (1989) reached audiences a year after “Dangerous Liaisons,” both based on the same French novel.

“The People vs. Larry Flynt” (1996) starred Woody Harrelson as the Hustler publisher. It garnered Oscar nominations for the actor and Forman’s direction.

“Man on the Moon,” based on the life of cult hero Andy Kaufman, did win its star, Jim Carrey, a Golden Globe. But it also failed to fully convey Kaufman’s pioneering style of offbeat comedy or the reasons for his disdaining success at every turn.

“Another great one passes through the doorway,” tweeted Carrey. “I’m glad we got to play together. It was a monumental experience.”

Larry Karaszewski, who co-wrote “Man on the Moon” and “The People vs Larry Flynt” with Scott Alexander, called Forman “our friend and our teacher” on Twitter. “He was a master filmmaker – no one better at capturing small unrepeatable moments of human behavior.”

Jan Tomas Forman, born in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, was raised by relatives after his parents’ deaths and attended arts school in Prague.

The director’s first marriage, to actress Jana Brejchova ended in divorce. He left his second wife, singer Vera Kresadlova, behind with the couple’s twin sons when he left Czechoslovakia. He married Martina Zborilova in 1999. They also had twin sons.

___

The late AP Entertainment Writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.

GOP Spending $250 Million to Protect House Majority

WASHINGTON—The Republican National Committee has committed $250 million to a midterm election strategy that has one goal above all else: Preserve the party’s House majority for the rest of President Donald Trump’s first term.

Facing the prospect of a blue wave this fall, the White House’s political arm is devoting unprecedented resources to building an army of paid staff and trained volunteers across more than two dozen states. The RNC is taking the fight to Senate Democrats in Republican-leaning states, but much of the national GOP’s resources are focused on protecting Republican-held House seats in states including Florida, California and New York.

“Our No. 1 priority is keeping the House. We have to win the House,” RNC political director Juston Johnson said. “That is the approach we took to put the budget together.”

RNC officials shared details of their midterm spending plan with The Associated Press just as several hundred volunteers and staff held a day of action on Saturday in competitive regions across the country. The weekend show of force, which comes as Democrats have shown a significant enthusiasm advantage in the age of President Donald Trump, was designed to train 1,600 new volunteers in more than 200 events nationwide.

There were more than three dozen events in Florida alone, a state that features competitive races for the Senate, the governorship and a half dozen House races.

Seven months before Election Day, there are already 300 state-based staff on the RNC’s payroll. The committee expects to have 900 total paid staff around the country — excluding its Washington headquarters — before November’s election, Johnson said. The number of trained volunteers, he said, has already surpassed 10,000.

The strategy is expensive. And it carries risk.

The RNC’s focus on a sophisticated field operation designed to identify and turn out key voters, an approach favored by former chairman Reince Priebus and expanded by Trump’s hand-picked chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, leaves the RNC with no additional resources to run advertising on television or the internet. It also puts tremendous pressure on the president and senior party leaders to raise money to fund the massive operation.

And few believe that even the best field operation could wholly neutralize the surge of Democratic enthusiasm on display in recent special elections, which has some Republican strategists fearing that the House majority may be lost already.

Democrats need to pick up at least 24 seats to take control of the House for the last two years of Trump’s first term. They need just two seats to claim the Senate majority, though the map makes a Democratic Senate takeover much less likely.

An optimistic McDaniel said strong Republican fundraising has allowed the aggressive strategy. During the first year of Trump’s presidency, the GOP set a fundraising record by raising more than $132 million.

“Our sweeping infrastructure, combined with on-the-ground enthusiasm for President Trump and Republican policies, puts us in prime position to defend our majorities in 2018,” McDaniel said.

The $250 million price tag for what she described as a “permanent data-driven field program” is the committee’s largest ground-game investment in any election season. The resources are focused in some unfamiliar territory, including several House districts in Southern California, which Johnson described as “a huge focus.”

At a minimum, each targeted state features an RNC state director, a data director and at least a few staff devoted to each competitive House district. They are aggressively recruiting and training local volunteers to expand the GOP’s presence in key communities.

The teams are larger in some states than in others.

In Florida, there are already 60 permanent field staff on the ground, Johnson said, including some dedicated to building relationships with the influx of Puerto Ricans who recently migrated from the hurricane-ravaged island. Johnson expects close to 150 paid staff on the ground in the state by Election Day.

And there are roughly two dozen paid staff already on the ground in Ohio and Nevada, he said. Both states feature competitive races for the House and Senate.

Nevada state director Dan Coats has been on the ground in the state for a year. He said the Nevada team already features directors for voter registration, volunteer training and strategic initiatives, which include Hispanic outreach.

“We’re building a volunteer army that will be a turnkey operation for every Republican campaign up and down the ballot,” Coats said. “A strong field game like the one we have here can and will make a difference.”

Trump Talks With Allies: They Agree Attack Was ‘Successful’

WASHINGTON — The Latest on U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria (all times local):

4:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump has spoken with the leaders of France and the United Kingdom individually to discuss their joint military operation in Syria.

The White House says Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday following airstrikes to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians in the town outside Damascus.

The White House says the leaders agreed the airstrikes in Syria “were successful and necessary to deter” the future use of chemical weapons.

The suspected chemical attack on April 7 in Douma killed at least 40 civilians, with families found suffocated in their houses and shelters. Assad’s government has denied responsibility, but the U.S., France and Britain say they have proof.

___

4:10 p.m.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the U.S., France and Britain launched joint military strikes after gathering evidence that Syrian armed forces had used chemical weapons.

Le Drian said in an interview Saturday on French TV channel TF1 that they were able to verify that gas was used, including “chlorine undoubtedly.”

The strikes earlier Saturday were a response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government using suspected chemical weapons on its people on April 7, killing 40 civilians in Douma in the eastern Ghouta region.

The French minister says the chemical attacks occurred during an offensive by the Syrian armed forces “at a time when there was resistance that Bashar Assad wanted to eliminate more quickly.”

Le Drian says Assad “is a regular user of chemical weapons” and had to be stopped.

___

3:40 p.m.

Syria’s deputy parliament speaker says he believes Western countries could again use the pretext of chemical weapons to launch airstrikes on his country.

Najdat Anzour told The Associated Press on Saturday that Western countries want to resume Syria peace talks in Geneva with conditions that include drafting a new constitution, holding presidential elections and forming a Cabinet with the participation of armed opposition groups.

He says such conditions for relaunching the peace talks are “unacceptable and impossible.”

The U.S., Britain and France launched airstrikes at Syria earlier Saturday in response to a suspected chemical attack on civilians by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government last weekend that killed at least 40 people.

The allied coalition says it has proof that poisonous gas was used last weekend in Douma. Syria and Russia deny it.

___

2:30 p.m.

Greek police say about 6,000 to 7,000 people turned up at a rally and march in central Athens organized by Greece’s Communist Party to protest the U.S.-led missile attack against Syria.

The protesters gathered at Athens’ central Syntagma Square before marching to the U.S. embassy, chanting anti-U.S. slogans and holding banners. Once there, they wrote “Americans, murderers of peoples” on the pavement in red paint and tried, unsuccessfully, to lob paint into the embassy’s courtyard.

Police vehicles barricaded access to the embassy, and there was a heavy police presence. Protesters left peacefully.

The U.S., Britain and France launched joint airstrikes in Syria earlier Saturday in response to a suspected chemical attack on civilians by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. The suspected chemical attack April 7 killed at least 40 people.

___

2:25 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence say the United States did the morally right thing when it attacked Syrian chemical weapons facilities in retaliation for an attack on civilians.

Pence is crediting the strong leadership of President Donald Trump and U.S. allies for conducting what he says was a successful strike with no reported civilian casualties.

He told reporters at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, on Saturday that the operation “significantly eroded” and “degraded” Syrian chemical weapons capabilities and that the mission was “completely accomplished.”

He also stressed that the president made clear the U.S. is “prepared to sustain this effort.”

He says there will be a price to pay if Syrian chemical weapons are used again. Last weekend’s suspected chemical attack killed 40 civilians, including women and children.

___

2:20 p.m.

Pakistan says it is following the situation in Syria with “grave concern” and calls on all sides to refrain from actions that violate the U.N. charter.

A Foreign Ministry statement Saturday says Pakistan condemns any use of chemical weapons and calls for an urgent and transparent investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The U.S., Britain and France launched airstrikes against Syrian chemical sites early Saturday in response to a suspected chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government on April 7 that killed 40 civilians, including women and children. Assad’s government denies responsibility.

The allied coalition says it has obtained proof that poisonous gas was used last weekend in Douma. Russia and its close ally Syria call the attack fabricated.

___

1:40 p.m.

The U.N. Security Council has rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the “aggression” by the United States and its allies against Syria.

Only three countries — Russia, China and Bolivia — voted in favor of the resolution at the end of an emergency meeting of the 15-member council called by Russia on Saturday. Eight countries voted against and three abstained.

A resolution needs at least 9 “yes” votes to be approved.

The vote reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.’s most powerful body, which has been paralyzed in dealing with the seven-year Syrian conflict and chemical weapons use in the country.

The U.S., Britain and France say they launched airstrikes against Syrian chemical sites after obtaining “proof” that poisonous gas was used last weekend in Douma. Russia and Syria call the attack fabricated.

___

1:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says the joint military operation by the U.S., Britain and France on Syrian targets has achieved its goals.

Macron’s office said in a statement that the French leader talked separately with President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday after the strikes had ended.

The strikes were a response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government using suspected chemical weapons on its people on April 7, killing 40 civilians.

Macron says, “The operation against the chemical capabilities of the Syrian regime… has achieved its objectives.” The French president “praised the excellent coordination of our forces with those of our British and American allies” during the military strikes.

He says the U.N. Security Council must now work together to help the people of Syria.

___

1:20 p.m.

Israel’s premier is lauding the American-led strikes against Syria as proof of its commitment to halt the use of chemical weapons.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday that the joint American-British-French operation showed they would not be satisfied with statements alone. Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that his efforts to acquire “weapons of mass destruction” and his allowing Iran to establish itself in Syria threaten his country.

Israel has issued several stern warnings of late about Iran’s increased involvement along its border in Syria and Lebanon. Netanyahu has been a strong supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump and complemented his “resolve” in countering the threat.

The airstrikes carried out early Saturday in Syria were in response to a suspected chemical attack against civilians last weekend that killed more than 40 people.

___

1:15 p.m.

U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria have prompted senior Mormon church officials to change their travel plans as they continue a world tour.

A spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Saturday that a delegation led by church President Russell M. Nelson left Jerusalem ahead of schedule over “concerns pertaining to tension in the region and available airspace.”

The airstrikes were launched early Saturday in Syria.

Spokesman Doug Anderson says the 93-year-old Nelson, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland and their wives are “cognizant of the conditions in neighboring Syria.”

According to Anderson, the delegation is beginning the Africa portion of its trip sooner than planned.

The tour began in London. Other planned stops include Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; Bengaluru, India; Bangkok; Hong Kong; and Honolulu

___

12:50 p.m.

The Arab League’s chief has expressed regret and alarm at the latest developments in Syria following the launch of joint U.S., British, and French airstrikes to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians in the town outside Damascus.

Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters on Saturday that all parties involved in the crisis, primarily the Syrian government, are responsible for the deterioration of the situation. He says the prohibited use of chemical weapons against civilians “shouldn’t be accepted or tolerated.”

He also says the issue requires a sustainable political solution for the Syrian crisis.

Aboul-Gheit spoke from the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia, where an Arab League summit is to take place Sunday.

___

12:45 p.m.

A former officer in Syria’s chemical program says the joint U.S., British, and French strikes in response to an suspected chemical attack in a Damascus suburb hit “parts of but not the heart” of the program.

Adulsalam Abdulrazek said Saturday that the joint strikes were unlikely to curb the government’s ability to produce or launch new attacks.

Speaking from rebel-held northern Syria, Abdulrazek told The Associated Press there were an estimated 50 warehouses around Syria that stored chemical weapons before the program was dismantled in 2013. He says he believes those fixed storage facilities remain intact or were only slightly moved around.

He says Syria’s chemical weapons program was only partially dismantled because Damascus didn’t allow inspections of existing stockpiles and capabilities.

___

12:40 p.m.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s obstruction course at the U.N. Security Council left NATO’s U.S, British and French allies no option but to launch a missile attack on key Syrian installations.

Stoltenberg said after a debriefing of NATO ambassadors by the three allies Saturday that “before the attack took place last night, NATO allies exhausted all other possible ways to address this issue to the UNSC by diplomatic and political means.”

He added, “But since this was blocked by Russia, there was no other alternative.”

Stoltenberg says, “I am not saying that the attacks last night solved all problems but compared to the alternative to do nothing this was the right thing to do.”

A U.S.-led airstrike campaign against Syria was in response to a suspected chemical attack against civilians last weekend.

___

12:35 p.m.

Russia is demanding a vote on a U.N. resolution that would condemn “the aggression” against Syria by the United States and its allies.

The resolution is certain to be defeated in the U.N. Security Council when it is put to a vote later Saturday at the end of an emergency meeting called by Russia following airstrikes by the U.S., U.K. and France in Syria against chemical sites.

The short draft resolution calls the “aggression” a violation of international law and the U.N. charter.

It demands that military action stop “immediately and without delay.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that the U.S. and its allies struck without waiting for an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, calling the attack “hooliganism.”

___

12:30 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria “degraded and crippled” the country’s chemical weapons capability.

Pence told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of a summit in Peru on Saturday that President Donald Trump “made it clear to the world” that the United States “will not tolerate these chemical weapons.”

And he says the U.S. is “prepared to sustain this effort if necessary.”

Pence is filling in for Trump at the Summit of the Americas in Lima.

Pence says he’s hopeful that Russia and Iran will “once and for all abandon chemical weapons” against innocent civilians.

Trudeau has called the airstrikes “unfortunate but necessary.”

The airstrikes that hit Syria earlier Saturday were in response to a suspected chemical attack against civilians last weekend.

___

12:25 p.m.

NATO says all 29 of its members in the alliance back the airstrikes on Syria as a consequence of the country conducting a suspected chemical attack against its civilians last weekend.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the strikes early Saturday by the U.S., United Kingdom and France were about making sure that chemical weapons cannot be used with impunity. He noted that the three allies said it was “a very successful action” that significantly degraded the abilities of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces to launch chemical attacks soon again.

On April 7, more than 40 civilians were killed in a suspected chemical attack in Douma outside Damascus. Syria has denied responsibility, but the U.S., France and Britain have said there is no doubt the Assad government was responsible.

___

12:15 p.m.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says President Donald Trump told her if the Syrian regime uses poisonous gas again, “the United States is locked and loaded” to strike again.

Nikki Haley relayed the message from Trump at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday. She says, “When our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line.”

Haley says the message from the U.S., U.K. and French airstrikes earlier Saturday that “crippled Syria’s chemical weapons program” was “crystal clear.”

She says, “The United States of America will not allow the Assad regime to continue using chemical weapons.”

Haley accused Russia of defending Syrian President Bashar Assad and failing to ensure that Syria’s chemical weapons were destroyed as the Assad regime had pledged in 2013.

___

Noon

French Defense Minister Florence Parly says that the joint military strikes by the U.S., Britain and France on Syrian targets was a success and that the mission’s goals have been achieved.

Parly spoke Saturday at a news conference following a defense council meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and other officials. She says, “Syria’s ability to design, produce and stockpile chemical weapons has been greatly diminished.”

Parly says, “The mission is a success. Its military objectives are achieved.”

The joint military strikes were intended as a punishment for Syrian President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians in the town of Douma outside Damascus last week. Opposition leaders and rescuers say more than 40 people, including many women and children, died in the suspected chemical attack.

___

11:25 a.m.

Turkey’s president says the airstrikes on Syrian targets in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack were “correct” and showed the Syrian regime that such actions would not go “unanswered.”

Speaking Saturday in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his support of the joint American, British and French military operation but said more must be done to hold the Syrian regime accountable for the hundreds of thousands killed using conventional weapons.

He says, “The people martyred by chemicals is a certain amount, but the people martyred by conventional weapons is much, much more.”

Erdogan called the days leading up to the airstrikes a “showdown” led by America and Russia. He says he pushed for a peaceful end to the tension in a conversation with British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier Saturday.

___

10:10 a.m.

The Pentagon says a Russian “disinformation campaign” has already begun over the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.

Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Saturday that “there has been a 2,000 percent increase in Russian trolls in the past 24 hours.”

The U.S., Britain and France said they launched Saturday’s strike to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians in the town of Douma outside Damascus. Opposition leaders and rescuers say more than 40 people, including many women and children, died in the suspected chemical attack.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the attack was an attempt to derail an investigation into a purported chemical attack. The Foreign Ministry says facts presented by Russian investigators indicated that the purported attack was a “premeditated and cynical sham.”

___

10 a.m.

The Pentagon is backing President Donald Trump’s assertion that the missile strikes on Syria were “Mission Accomplished!”

Trump used the haunting political phrase “Mission Accomplished!” in a tweet Saturday morning to praise the “perfectly executed strike” against Syria. President George W. Bush famously spoke under a “Mission Accomplished” banner in 2003 when he declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over, but the war dragged on for years.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White says, “It was mission accomplished.”

However, one of the stated goals of the strikes was to deter Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government from using chemical weapons again. It is too soon to know if that will be the case.

White says the strikes “were very successful. We met our objectives. We hit the sites.”

___

9:50 a.m.

The Pentagon says they believe the airstrikes “attacked the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program.”

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, says the U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria has been “a very serious blow.”

The U.S., France and Britain launched military strikes on Saturday morning in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR’ AH’-sahd) for an apparent chemical attack against civilians last week and to deter him from doing it again.

Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White says the target choices were “very methodical,” calling it a “deliberate decision” to go after chemical weapons facilities. She says the U.S. was confident that they had “significantly degraded his ability to use chemical weapons ever again.”

___

9:30 a.m.

The Pentagon says none of the missiles filed by the U.S. and its allies was deflected by Syrian air defenses, rebutting claims by the Russian and Syrian governments.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, says: “None of our aircraft or missiles involved in this operation were successfully engaged by Syrian air defenses.” He says there also is no indication that Russian air defense systems were employed early Saturday in Syria.

The Russian military had previously said Syria’s Soviet-made air defense systems downed 71 out of 103 cruise missiles launched by the United States and its allies.

McKenzie says 105 weapons were launched against three targets in Syria.

Characterizing the strike as a success, McKenzie says, “As of right now we’re not aware of any civilian casualties.”

___

9:20 a.m.

The Pentagon says the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria “successfully hit every target.”

Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Saturday that the strikes were launched to “cripple Syria’s ability to use chemical weapons in the future.”

The U.S., France and Britain launched military strikes on Saturday morning in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians last week and to deter him from doing it again.

White says the strikes do not “represent a change in U.S. policy or an attempt to depose the Syrian regime.” But she says, “We cannot allow such grievous violations of international law.”

She also called on Russia to “honor its commitment” to ensure the Assad regime gives up chemical weapons.

___

9 a.m.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the U.S. and its allies launched strikes on Syria to derail an investigation into a purported chemical attack.

The U.S., Britain and France said they launched Saturday’s strike to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for an alleged chemical attack against civilians in the town of Douma outside Damascus.

The Foreign Ministry said that facts presented by Russian investigators indicated the purported attack was a “premeditated and cynical sham.”

The ministry noted that the strikes were launched on Saturday as a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was to visit Douma. It added that “we have every reason to believe that the attack on Syria was intended to hamper the work of the OPCW inspectors.”

___

8:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is using a haunting political phrase “Mission Accomplished” in the aftermath of the U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria.

Back in 2003, then-President George W. Bush spoke under a “Mission Accomplished” banner when he went aboard an aircraft carrier in California to declare that major combat operations in Iraq were over — just six weeks after the invasion.

But the war dragged on for many years after that, and Bush was heavily criticized for his statement.

Trump is tweeting about what he calls “a perfectly executed strike” against Syria. And he’s thanking allies France and Britain “for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

___

8:30 a.m.

A U.N. Security Council diplomat says the council will meet later Saturday at Russia’s request, following the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria.

Moscow has denounced the attack on its ally by the U.S., Britain and France. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls it an “act of aggression” that will only worsen the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

The Security Council held emergency meetings this past week on the suspected poison gas attack last weekend in the rebel-controlled Damascus suburb of Douma.

President Donald Trump and his British and French allies say the airstrikes were necessary to deter Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Russia insists there’s no evidence that chemical weapons were used.

A fact-finding team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is in Syria to investigate.

___

7:10 a.m.

A global chemical warfare watchdog group says its fact-finding mission to Syria will go ahead even after the U.S.-led airstrikes.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says in a statement that its team will stick to its plan to investigate last weekend’s suspected poison gas attack in Douma.

The group says the mission “will continue its deployment to the Syrian Arab Republic to establish facts around the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma.”

Russia and Syria disagree with Western allies that gas was used by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces to suppress opposition close to Damascus in an April 7 attack.

___

7:05 a.m.

Iranian officials have made calls to Syrian leaders in the wake of the U.S.-led airstrikes against Syrian targets.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, tells Syria’s Bashar Assad that America’s goal is to justify its continued presence in the region.

That description of their conversation comes from Syrian and Iranian state news agencies.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has spoken with his Syrian counterpart, too. Zarif says the U.S. is using allegations of chemical weapons to justify attacking Syria before inspectors from a chemical weapons watchdog agency begin their work.

___

5:50 a.m.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria a “military crime.”

He spoke at a meeting with Iranian officials and ambassadors from some Islamic countries.

The report quotes Khamenei as calling the leaders of the United States, Britain and France — the countries that launched the attack — “criminals.”

The allies’ operation was intended to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians and to deter him from doing it again.

___

5:45 a.m.

NATO representatives are planning a special session to hear from U.S., British and French officials about their military strike against Syria.

The alliance briefing is expected later Saturday, and NATO’s secretary-general has expressed strong support for the coordinated military action aimed at the Syrian governor’s chemical weapons program.

Jens Stoltenberg says the missile strikes will erode the Syrian government’s “ability to further attack the people of Syria with chemical weapons.”

Certain of Gas Attack, Allies Struck Syria Before U.N. Report

WASHINGTON — The United States, Britain and France opted to strike Syria for its apparent use of chemical weapons without waiting for a report from U.N. inspectors because they were convinced that the Assad government had used chlorine and possibly sarin nerve gas against a rebel-held Damascus suburb, American officials said Saturday.

The allies also acted because of concerns that Russian and Syrian forces may already have tried to clean up important evidence in Douma, where more than 40 people died in last weekend’s attack, the officials said.

The three countries launched their missiles even as the fact-finding team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was in the Syrian capital and had been expected to head on Saturday to Douma.

Russia and Syria have denied that chemical weapons were used at all and said their own investigators had been to the area and found no trace of them. Those assertions have been denounced as lies by Western officials.

The West’s assessments of what happened April 7 in Douma rely mainly on open source information. That includes witness testimony, as well as video and photos shot by aid workers, victims of the attacks and unspecified additional intelligence about barrel bombs and chlorine canisters found in the aftermath.

Barrel bombs are large containers packed with fuel, explosives and scraps of metal, and British Prime Minister Theresa May said reports indicated the Syrian government had used one to deliver the chemicals.

The White House said doctors and aid organizations on the ground in Douma reported “the strong smell of chlorine and described symptoms consistent with exposure to sarin.”

In a briefing at the Pentagon Friday night, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was “very confident” chlorine was used, and while “not ruling out sarin,” could not definitively confirm use of that deadly nerve agent.

Chlorine use has been a recurring footnote in the course of Syria’s civil war, but rarely has it generated the same outrage as reports of sarin use.

Chlorine has legitimate industrial and other civilian uses, so it is not banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The treaty does, however, prohibit the use of chlorine as a weapon.

One senior U.S. official familiar with the decision to act on Friday said the U.S., British and French intelligence services were unanimous in their assessments of the attack and were “eager” to move when they did because of concerns about contamination of the site.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss specifics beyond those contained in the formal statements.

Despite the strikes, the chemical weapons watchdog agency said its experts would go ahead with their mission. The Russian foreign ministry, however, accused the allies of acting when they did “to hamper the work of the OPCW inspectors.”

The U.S. has denied that assertion and called the group’s mission “essential” to a complete understanding of what chemical agents were used.

A second U.S. official said Britain, France and the U.S. are confident that the inspectors’ eventual report will confirm their findings that chlorine was used, likely in conjunction with sarin.

The three governments noted dozens previous, smaller-scale chlorine and other chemical weapons attacks over the course of the past year, since President Donald Trump first ordered airstrikes against Syria last April.

Reports of major chlorine attacks began emerging in 2014, soon after Syria’s declaration of complete chemical disarmament, which was the result of an Obama administration agreement between the U.S. and Russia. The agreement only covered declared chemical weapons. Syria is widely suspected of hiding some stocks, manufacturing more as well as holding on to chlorine.

“The pictures of dead children were not fake news. They were the result of the Syrian regime’s barbaric inhumanity,” Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, said Saturday. “And they were the result of the regime and Russia’s failure to live up to their international commitments to remove all chemical weapons from Syria. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom acted after careful evaluation of these facts.”

In August 2015, the U.N. Security Council first authorized the OPCW and U.N. investigators to probe reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, as witnesses began to circulate increasing accounts of chlorine attacks by government forces against civilians in opposition-held areas.

A year later, the joint OPCW-U.N. panel determined the Syrian government had twice used helicopters to deploy chlorine against its opponents in civilian areas in northern Idlib province. A later report held the government responsible for a third attack.

There have been dozens of attacks with chlorine gas since then, including an attack in Aleppo in 2016 that reportedly killed a woman and two children, and at least two attacks on the town of Saraqeb in northern Syria that injured dozens.

France, U.K. Gamble in Joining Trump’s Syria Strike

PARIS — Europe’s two biggest military powers took a gamble in lining up behind U.S. President Donald Trump to bombard Syria. Now they need to make sure it doesn’t backfire.

Critics swiftly accused Britain and France of playing loyal deputies to an unpredictable American leader, viewed by many in Europe with suspicion or outright scorn. Some worried it could further antagonize Europe’s hulking neighbor Russia at an already tense time.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was decried for not seeking parliamentary approval for Saturday’s coordinated airstrikes. French President Emmanuel Macron was accused of compromising the independence of a country that famously stayed out of former U.S. President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.

And worst of all, Saturday’s “one-shot” military operation may not substantially change the course of the war in Syria.

Yet the coordinated bombings tapped into the prevailing mood among leaders of the two powers, who are united in a sense that something had to be done to stop Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government from repeatedly using chemical weapons.

“We have seen the harrowing images of men, women and children lying dead with foam in their mouths,” May told reporters. “These were innocent families who, at the time this chemical weapon was unleashed, were seeking shelter underground … This must be stopped.”

Boosters see the attack as a way to keep European voices heard in Syria’s increasingly globalized civil war. And some even hope that Saturday’s rain of cruise missiles could push all sides closer to the negotiating table and an eventual end to the war.

For all their skepticism of Trump, many Europeans have been are brought together by an unequivocal abhorrence of the use of chemical weapons in war, since they were first used on a massive scale in World War I in Europe a century ago. The use of gas was soon outlawed, and that red line in diplomacy should not turn gray, the argument goes.

“We cannot tolerate the normalization of the use of chemical weapons,” Macron said in launching French military action, calling that “an immediate danger to the Syrian people and for our collective security.”

The move could cost both leaders domestically, however.

May said there was “no other choice” but to act fast, without taking time to recall Parliament from its break. Lawmakers are already crying foul.

While May wasn’t legally required to seek lawmakers’ approval, opposition leaders had suggested she had a moral responsibility to do so. The tainted legacy of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s rush to back U.S. President George W. Bush in Iraq has overshadowed the debate.

“Theresa May should have sought parliamentary approval, not trailed after Donald Trump,” said opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. He warned that May could face a backlash in Parliament, calling the allies’ bombing “legally questionable” and saying it risks further escalating “an already devastating conflict.”

May’s Conservative Party lost its majority last June, and since then, her government has limped from crisis to crisis.

In France, Macron is facing the worst labor unrest of his presidency so far, with strikes that halted two-thirds of French trains Saturday and weeks more of walkouts to come.

Macron drew criticism Saturday from the far left to the far right. National Front leader Marine Le Pen tweeted that the strikes expose France to “unpredictable and potentially dramatic consequences,” and criticized Macron for not taking an “independent” stance.

Yet Macron is trying to keep all his options open.

He talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the attacks on Russian ally Syria, and hinted that they were imminent, according to top French officials. And as soon as the strikes were over, the French foreign minister pledged to keep open channels of communication with Russia.

But in nine days, Macron goes to Washington for the first state visit under Trump’s presidency — and the French leader can’t be seen as Trump’s lapdog. He also needs to distance himself from comparisons to the 2003 Iraq invasion, which was motivated by suspicions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.

Despite the political risks at home, both May and Macron seem to have calculated that not acting also carried its share of peril.

European nations want to contain what they see as an increasingly brazen Russia on its eastern borders. From the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 to cyberattacks, suspected meddling in elections and the Salisbury nerve agent attack on a former spy, they see Russia as an unchecked force that can cause panic in Europe.

“It has always been Bulgaria’s position that no cause justifies the killing of innocent people, including children; that the use of chemical weapons is a war crime and the strike on Syrian targets was a response to a war crime,” said the Bulgarian government, which holds the rotating European Union presidency.

Other European leaders were more tempered. German Angela Chancellor Merkel called the military action against Syria “necessary and appropriate” — but happily let Britain and France take the lead.

Germany has taken in more than 700,000 Syrian refugees in recent years and has a strong interest in preventing an escalation that might lead to further refugee movements toward Europe. Germany is also generally averse to military action abroad.

European Council President Donald Tusk — a frequent critic of Trump — said the EU “will stand with our allies on the side of justice.”

On the streets near Macron’s presidential palace, Parisians had mixed feelings about the airstrikes against Syria.

“It’s a difficult question. It’s dangerous to face up to Russia. … but in front of a dictator who is slaughtering his population, if it’s confirmed, we cannot stay without reacting,” retiree Jean-Claude Barthez said. “So I’m putting my trust in the government of the three nations.”

___

Kirka reported from London and Casert from Brussels. Frank Jordans in Berlin and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed.

‘Mission Accomplished’ in Syria, Trump Declares on Twitter

WASHINGTON — Allied missiles struck at the heart of Syrian chemical weapons arsenal in a show of force and resolve aimed at punishing the Assad government for a suspected poison gas attack against civilians and deterring the possible future use of such banned weapons.

“A perfectly executed strike,” President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday in the aftermath of his second decision in two years to fire missiles against Syria. “Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

His choice of words recalled a similar claim associated with President George W. Bush following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bush addressed sailors aboard a ship in May 2003 alongside a “Mission Accomplished” banner, just weeks before it became apparent that Iraqis had organized an insurgency that tied down U.S. forces for years.

Syria’s chief allies, Russia and Iran, called the use of force by the United States, Britain and France a “military crime” and “act of aggression” with the potential to worsen a humanitarian crisis after years of civil war. The U.N. Security Council planned to meet later Saturday at Moscow’s request.

“Good souls will not be humiliated,” Syrian President Bashar Assad tweeted, while hundreds of Syrians gathered in Damascus, the capital, where they flashed victory signs and waved flags in scenes of defiance after the one-hour barrage launched Friday evening (early Saturday in Syria).

The strikes “successfully hit every target,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said at a briefing Saturday, disputing the Russian military’s contention that Syrian air defense units downed 71 out of 103 cruise missiles fired by the allies.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said no aircraft or missiles involved in the operation “were successfully engaged by Syrian air defenses.” He said 105 weapons were launched against three targets, and that the U.S. was not aware of any civilian casualties.

A global chemical warfare watchdog group said its fact-finding mission would go as planned in Douma, where the apparent use of poison gas against civilians on April 7 that killed more than 40 people compelled the Western allies to launch their attack. Syria has denied the accusation.

But France’s foreign minister said there was “no doubt” the Assad government was responsible, and he threatened further retaliatory strikes if chemical weapons were used again, as did Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, who said the assault was a “one-time shot,” as long as chemical weapons weren’t used again.

NATO representatives planned a special session to hear from U.S., British and French officials.

Pentagon officials said the attacks, carried out by manned aircraft and from ships that launched cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea, targeted the heart of Assad’s programs to develop and produce chemical weapons, and delivered “a very serious blow,” said McKenzie.

Trump said the U.S. was prepared to sustain economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Assad until he ends what Trump called a criminal pattern of killing his own people with internationally banned chemical weapons. That did not mean military strikes would continue; in fact, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no additional attacks were currently planned.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin reaffirmed the Kremlin’s skepticism about the allies’ Douma claim, saying Russian military experts had found no trace of the attack. He criticized the U.S. and its allies for launching the strike without waiting for international inspectors to visit the area.

But British Prime Minister Theresa May cited reports she said indicated the Syrian government used a barrel bomb — large containers packed with fuel, explosives and scraps of metal — to deliver the chemicals. “No other group” could have carried out that attack, she said, adding that the allies’ use of force was “right and legal.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the West’s response was “necessary and appropriate.”

Mattis disclosed that the U.S. had not yet confirmed that the Douma attack — the most recent suspected Syrian chemical weapons attack, on April 7 — included the use of sarin gas. He said at least one chemical was used — chlorine, which also has legitimate industrial uses and had not previously triggered a U.S. military response.

He said the targets selected by U.S., British and French officials were meant to minimize civilian casualties.

“This is difficult to do in a situation like this,” he said, in light of the volatility of chemical agents.

Defense officials from the countries involved in the attack gave differing accounts of how much warning was given to the Russians, Syria’s powerful ally.

Dunford said the U.S. did not coordinate targets with or notify the Russian government of the strikes, beyond normal airspace “de-confliction” communications. But the description from an ally put things differently. French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that “with our allies, we ensured that the Russians were warned ahead of time.”

At a Pentagon news conference alongside Mattis, and with British and French military officers beside them to emphasize allied unity, Dunford said the attacks targeted mainly three targets in western Syria.

Dunford said missiles first struck a scientific research center in the Damascus area that he said was a center of Syrian research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology. The second target was a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs. He said this was believed to be the main site of Syrian sarin and precursor chemical production equipment.

The third target was a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and an important command post, also west of Homs, Dunford said.

British leader May said in London that the West had tried “every possible” diplomatic means to stop Assad from using chemical weapons. “But our efforts have been repeatedly thwarted” by Syria and Russia, she said.

“So there is no practicable alternative to the use of force to degrade and deter the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime,” May said. “This is not about intervening in a civil war. It is not about regime change.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that a target of the strike was the Syrian government’s “clandestine chemical arsenal.”

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied any use of banned weapons.

The decision to strike, after days of deliberations, marked Trump’s second order to attack Syria. He authorized a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles to hit a single Syrian airfield in April 2017 in retaliation for Assad’s use of sarin gas against civilians.

Trump chastised Russia and Iran for supporting “murderous dictators,” and noted that Putin had guaranteed a 2013 international agreement for Assad to get rid of all of his chemical weapons.

White, the Defense Department spokeswoman, said the strikes did not “represent a change in U.S. policy or an attempt to depose the Syrian regime.” But, she said, “We cannot allow such grievous violations of international law.”

Zuckerberg Flubs Details of Facebook Privacy Commitments

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Over two days of questioning in Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he didn’t know key details of a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission that requires Facebook to protect user privacy.

With congressional hearings over and no immediate momentum behind calls for regulation, the biggest hammer still hanging over Facebook in the U.S. is a fresh FTC investigation. The probe follows revelations that pro-Trump data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica acquired data from the profiles of millions of Facebook users. Facebook also faces inquiries in Europe.

The 2011 agreement bound Facebook to a 20-year privacy commitment, and any violations of that pact could cost Facebook a ton of money, even by its flush-with-cash standards. If Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress is any indication, the company might have something to worry about.

Zuckerberg repeatedly assured lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday that he believed Facebook is in compliance with that 2011 agreement. But he also flubbed simple factual questions about the consent decree.

“Congresswoman, I don’t remember if we had a financial penalty,” Zuckerberg said under questioning by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on Wednesday.

“You’re the CEO of the company, you entered into a consent decree and you don’t remember if you had a financial penalty?” she asked. She then pointed out that the FTC doesn’t have the authority to issue fines for first-time violations.

In response to questioning by Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, Zuckerberg acknowledged: “I’m not familiar with all of the things the FTC said.”

Zuckerberg also faced several questions from lawmakers about how long it takes for Facebook to delete user data from its systems. He didn’t know.

The 2011 consent decree capped years of Facebook privacy mishaps, many of which revolved around its early attempts to follow users and their friends around the web. Any violations of the 2011 agreement could subject Facebook to fines of $41,484 per violation per user per day. To put that in context, Facebook could theoretically owe $8 billion for one single day of a violation affecting all of its American users.

The current FTC investigation will look at whether Facebook engaged in “unfair acts” that cause “substantial injury” to consumers.

David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor who headed the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection when Facebook signed the deal, said in a blog post this month that Facebook’s argument that it didn’t violate the deal are “far-fetched.” Two days of testimony didn’t change his mind.

“Most of the reforms Facebook has talked about in the past couple of weeks proposed safeguards that should have been in place years ago,” he said by email on Wednesday following 10 hours of Zuckerberg’s testimony.

At issue are at least three sections of the decree.

The first requires that users give “affirmative express consent” any time that data they haven’t made public is shared with a third party. Facebook also has to tell users what data will be shared, who the third parties are, and explicitly note that the sharing exceeds their privacy-setting restrictions.

“In my view, these requirements were not met,” Vladeck said. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada made a similar point Tuesday, arguing that user consent couldn’t have been buried in their privacy settings.

“It had to be something very specific. Something very simple,” she said. “And that did not occur. Had that occurred, we wouldn’t be here today talking about Cambridge Analytica.”

A second portion of the decree forbids Facebook to share user-deleted data with third parties after 30 days, assuming the information was stored on servers under Facebook’s control.

The third and broadest part binds Facebook to a “comprehensive privacy program” vetted by an outside auditor. The question raised there is whether Facebook acted reasonably and quickly when it found out there may have been breaches of the deal, according to law professor William Kovacic of George Washington University, who served as an FTC commissioner when Facebook was being investigated but left before the settlement was announced.

Facebook has argued that it only shared data that was made public by users, or permitted by their privacy settings. Zuckerberg said Wednesday that audits it committed to never turned up problems.

“Was it deliberate? Was it inadvertent? Was there a dramatic lack of care?” Kovacic said. “Everything depends on how they go through this painstaking process of looking at what Facebook promised and what it actually did.”

The largest fine the FTC has ever imposed in a privacy case was a $22.5 million award in a settlement with Google in 2012. Kovacic said the investigation could take several months. If a case is brought, it would be prosecuted by the Justice Department.

For an American Abroad, It’s Been a Very Taxing Year

Recently, I traveled from London, where I am living, to New York, where I used to live. I did this to file my 2017 U.S. taxes. After completing the returns with my accountant, I made a point of visiting an old friend, a journalist, though his current success can perhaps be gauged by the fact that he is one of a diminishing number of culturally and professionally revered American men not accused of sexual misconduct. We were sitting across the table from one another and he removed his reading glasses to identify my mood.

“You look sad,” was his conclusion.

He wanted to know if this was because I’d just paid my taxes or because I was depressed by what appears to be the moral collapse of his gender. Both, I told him. The previous year a member of Congress with a leading role on an ethics committee managed a particularly cynical piece of political maneuvering by settling charges of his own sexual misconduct with some part of my tax dollars.

“Still, are you thinking of moving back to the States?” asked my friend.

I suggested that the current country that is America was bizarre enough to be psychologically crippling. In case it escaped his notice, we were in a bar at 11:30 in the morning on a weekday, and I was clutching an empty wine glass. “So, no, I don’t see myself returning quite yet, if for no other reason than to avoid becoming an alcoholic,” I informed him.

It’s been 10 years since I left my professional and personal life behind in New York and moved to Beijing to write a book for the Chinese about the West. From Beijing I moved to London, where I’ve written other books. I am in London still, researching my next, returning to the U.S. on an annual basis to pay my federal taxes.

“The English are calm,” I told my friend. “They tell you not to worry almost as frequently as they apologize, and these days I’m grateful for whatever reassurances come my way.”

The same week I saw my friend, there was another mass shooting in America, this time at a Florida high school. There have been over 300 mass shootings in the U.S. since I paid last year’s federal taxes. Left in their bloody wake has been the non-negotiable right to purchase war weapons whose sole purpose is to kill as many people in the shortest time possible—often in schools, sometimes in churches. With a career that has, quite literally, moved me from one spot on the globe to another, I can say with certainty that gun violence in America is the result of choices uniquely American.

Not long after I returned to the U.K., something wholly unexpected happened in the U.S.: the March for Our Lives. It was politically remarkable. It was encouragingly moral. It was a reminder of something that has eluded me since the last taxpaying year: hope.

How ‘Russiagate’ Produced the Missile Attack on Syria

Politicians, pundits and activists who’ve routinely denounced President Trump as a tool of Vladimir Putin can now mull over a major indicator of their cumulative impacts. The U.S.-led missile attack on Syria before dawn Saturday is the latest benchmark for gauging the effects of continually baiting Trump as a puppet of Russia’s president.

Heavyweights of U.S. media—whether outlets such as CNN and MSNBC or key newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post—spent most of the last week clamoring for Trump to order airstrikes on Syria. Powerful news organizations have led the way in goading Trump to prove that he’s not a Putin lackey after all.

One of the clearest ways that Trump can offer such proof is to recklessly show he’s willing to risk a catastrophic military confrontation with Russia.

In recent months, the profusion of “war hawks, spies and liars” on national television has been part of a media atmosphere that barely acknowledges what’s at stake with games of chicken between the world’s two nuclear superpowers. Meanwhile, the dominant U.S. news media imbue their reporting with a nationalistic sense of impunity.

On Saturday morning, the top headline on the New York Times website was “U.S. Attacks Syria in Retaliatory Strike,” while the subhead declared that “Western resolve” was at work. The story led off by reporting that Trump “sought to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus last weekend that killed more than 40 people.”

Try putting the shoe on the other foot for a moment. Imagine that Russia, with a similar rationale, fired missiles at U.S. ally Saudi Arabia because the Kremlin “sought to punish King Salman for his country’s war crimes in Yemen”—with such reportage appearing under a headline that described the Russian attack as a “retaliatory strike.”

The latest U.S. air attack on Russia’s close ally Syria was as much politically aimed at Moscow as at Damascus. And afterward, the televised adrenalin-pumped glee was as much an expression of pleasure about striking a blow at Putin as at Assad. After all, ever since Trump took office, the U.S. media and political elites have been exerting enormous pressures on him to polarize with Russia.

But let’s be clear: The pressures have not only been generated by corporate media and the political establishment. Across the United States, a wide range of people including self-described liberals and progressives—as individuals and organizations—have enthusiastically participated in the baiting, cajoling and denouncing of Trump as a Putin tool. That participation has stoked bellicose rhetoric by congressional Democrats, fueling the overall pressure on Trump to escalate tensions with Russia.

What’s really at issue here is not the merits of the Russian government in 2018, any more than the issue was the merits of the Soviet government in 1967—when President Lyndon Johnson hosted an extensive summit meeting in Glassboro, New Jersey, with Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin, reducing the chances of nuclear war in the process.

If you keep heading toward a destination, you’re likely to get there. In 2018, by any realistic measure, the escalating conflicts between the United States and Russia—now ominously reaching new heights in Syria—are moving us closer to World War III. It’s time to fully recognize the real dangers and turn around.

U.S. and Two Allies Launch Missile Attack on Syria

WASHINGTON—The Latest on U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria (all times local):

1:10 a.m.

Hundreds of Syrians are demonstrating in a landmark square of the Syrian capital, waving victory signs and honking their car horns in a show of defiance.

The demonstrations broke out early Saturday following a wave of U.S., British and French military strikes to punish President Bashar Assad for suspected chemical attack against civilians. The Syrian government has denied the accusations.

In Damascus, the president’s seat of power, hundreds of residents gathered in Omayyad Square, many waving Syrian, Russian and Iranian flags. Some clapped their hands and danced, others drove in convoys, honking their horns.

“We are your men, Bashar,” they shouted.

State TV broadcast live from the square where a large crowd of civilians mixed with men in uniforms, including an actor, lawmakers and other figures.

“Good morning steadfastness,” one broadcaster said.

___

1:05 a.m.

The British Defense Ministry says four of its Tornado GR4 warplanes fired missiles at a military facility as part of the tripartite attack on Syria.

The ministry says the missiles were fired around 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Homs, where it was assessed the Syrian regime keeps agents used to make chemical weapons.

The ministry said in a statement Saturday that the warplanes struck the former missile base with Storm Shadow missiles after “very careful analysis” to maximize the destruction of stockpiled chemicals and to minimize any risk of contamination to the surrounding area.

It said the facility is located “some distance from any known concentration” of civilian residential areas.

The ministry said a detailed analysis of how effective the strike was is continuing, but initial indications show a successful attack.

___

1 a.m.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says none of the missiles launched in a Western attack on Syria entered the zones guarded by Russia’s missile defense.

Russia has two military facilities in Syria — an air base at Hemeimeem and a naval base at Tartus.

“Not one of the cruise missiles launched by the United States and its partners entered the zone of responsibility for Russian air-defense divisions,” a ministry statement said Saturday.

___

12:20 a.m.

Syrian state-run TV says three civilians have been wounded in the U.S.-led missile attack on a military base in Homs.

It says the attack was aborted by derailing the incoming missile but adds nonetheless that three people were wounded.

It says another attack with “a number of missiles” targeting a scientific research center destroyed a building and caused other material damage but no human losses. The network says the building in the research center included an educational center and labs.

__

12:05 a.m.

A senior Syrian opposition leader says the international community will have to bear the responsibility for “any revengeful escalation” from the Syrian government or its allies following joint airstrikes from the U.S., Britain and France.

Nasr al-Hariri, who heads the committee that represents the opposition in the flailing U.N. talks with the government, says Syrians need an international understanding and a strategy that leads to a political solution to “save it from the brutality of the Syrian regime.”

Al-Hariri tweeted that after the strikes in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack last week, the Syrian government may not “risk using chemical weapons in Syria again.” But he added, “It will only use explosive barrels, cluster bombs.”

__

11:55 p.m.

The spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry is denouncing the United States for launching airstrikes on Syria. She says the attacks hit a long-troubled country “that for many years has been trying to survive terrorist aggression.”

In a statement Saturday on Facebook, Maria Zakharova is also taking Western media reports to task.

Zakharova says: “The White House stated that its assuredness of the chemical attack from Damascus was based on ‘mass media, reports of symptoms, video, photos as well as credible information.’ After this statement the American and other Western mass media should understand their responsibility in what is happening.”

Sakharova is comparing the situation to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 based on claims Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction.

__

11:30 p.m.

The Russian ambassador to the United States has condemned the airstrikes on Syria, which he says pose a threat to Russia.

Anatoly Antonov says in a statement that Russia has warned that “such actions will not be left without consequences” and “all responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris.”

He adds that “insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible.”

The U.S., Britain and France launched the military strikes to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians.

Russia’s military, which supports Assad, has described the purported chemical attack as a fake directed by Britain.

__

11:20 p.m.

The head of a delegation of Russian lawmakers visiting Syria claims that Western airstrikes on Syria were aimed at disrupting the work of international investigators looking into whether Syria used chemical weapons in the town of Douma.

The alleged chemical attack prompted the airstrikes. Investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were expected to begin work Saturday on determining whether a chemical attack occurred.

Russian parliament member Dmitry Sablin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying, “The airstrikes were carried out by the U.S.-led coalition consciously to spoil the investigation.”

The Russian military said Friday its specialists in Douma have found no evidence of a chemical attack.

__

11 p.m.

Congressional leaders are supporting President Donald Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad in retaliation for an apparent chemical attack against civilians — although there are some reservations.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is praising Trump’s “decisive action in coordination with our allies,” adding, “We are united in our resolve.”

Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman John McCain is applauding the airstrikes but says “they alone will not achieve U.S. objectives in the Middle East.”

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer is calling the airstrikes “appropriate,” but says “the administration has to be careful about not getting us into a greater and more involved war in Syria.”

And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says, “One night of airstrikes is not a substitute for a clear, comprehensive Syria strategy.”

__

10:50 p.m.

Syrian TV is reporting that the attack on Syria targeted a scientific research center in Barzeh, near Damascus.

The report says Syria’s air defenses confronted the missiles near Homs, and says the airstrikes also targeted an army depot there.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the airstrikes in retaliation for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

Syrian air defenses responded to the joint strikes by the United States, France and Britain

__

10:35 p.m.

A highly placed Russian politician is likening President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler after the launch of airstrikes against Syria, and says he regards the action as a move against Russia.

Alexander Sherin, deputy head of the State Duma’s defense committee, says Trump “can be called Adolf Hitler No. 2 of our time — because, you see, he even chose the time that Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.”

That’s according to state news agency RIA-Novosti. The Nazi forces’ opening attack against the USSR in 1941 was launched around 4 a.m.

__

10:20 p.m.

The British defense ministry says “initial indications” show that the airstrikes against Syria produced a “successful attack” on a Syrian military facility.

The U.K., U.S. and France launched the attacks near Damascus early Saturday. The U.K. ministry says in a statement that while the effectiveness of the strike is still being analyzed, “initial indications are that the precision of the Storm Shadow weapons and meticulous target planning have resulted in a successful attack.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May is describing the attack as neither “about intervening in a civil war” nor “about regime change,” but a limited and targeted strike that “does not further escalate tensions in the region” and does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.

May says, “We would have preferred an alternative path. But on this occasion there is none.”

__

10:17 p.m.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he is “absolutely confident” that Syrian President Bashar Assad is behind the alleged chemical attack on his people that the U.S. and allies retaliated against Friday night.

Mattis tells reporters he is certain Assad conducted a chemical attack on innocent people.

He says the U.S. is “very much aware of one of the chemical agents used.” And he says there may have been a second.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that the U.S., France and Britain had launched military strikes against Syria to punish Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons and to deter him from doing it again.

__

10:15 p.m.

Defense Secretary James Mattis says the U.S. has no reports of suffering any losses during the initial airstrikes on Syria Friday.

Mattis says “right now this is a one-time shot” but is not ruling out further attacks. President Donald Trump had said earlier that the campaign against the regime of Bashar Assad could be “sustained.”

The defense secretary says the airstrikes were launched against several sites that he says helped provide Assad’s ability to create chemical weapons. Mattis says the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people last week.

Mattis says the Pentagon will provide more information on the attack Saturday.

__

10:10 p.m.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says military strikes in Syria are “directed at the Syrian regime” and they have “gone to great lengths to avoid civilians and foreign casualties.”

Mattis spoke Friday night after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S., France and Britain launched military strikes on Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians and to deter him from doing it again.

Mattis is asking that “responsible nations” join in condemning the Assad regime.

__

10 p.m.

Defense Secretary James Mattis says the U.S. and its allies have taken “decisive action” against Syrian chemical weapons infrastructure.

Mattis briefed reporters at the Pentagon Friday an hour after President Donald Trump announced the strike.

Mattis says the United States, along with France and the United Kingdom, struck because Syrian President Bashar Assad “did not get the message” when the U.S. launched airstrikes after a chemical attack in 2017.

The defense secretary says Friday’s strikes have “sent a clear message” to Assad and his “murderous lieutenants.”

__

9:50 p.m.

Explosions are being heard to the east, west and south of Damascus as the U.S., U.K. and France conduct airstrikes in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government on its own people.

Witnesses saw blasts surrounding much of the Syrian capital and a huge fire could be seen from a distance to the east. An AP reporter in Damascus says the attacks turned the sky orange. Syrian television reported that a scientific research center had been hit.

Syrian media reported that Syrian defenses hit 13 rockets south of Damascus. After the attack ceased and the early morning skies went dark once more, vehicles with loudspeakers roamed the streets of Damascus blaring nationalist songs.

___

9:40 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says his nation, the United States and Britain have launched a military operation against the Syrian government’s “clandestine chemical arsenal.”

Macron says in a statement Saturday that France’s “red line has been crossed” after a suspected chemical attack last week in the Syrian town of Douma.

He says there is “no doubt” that the Syrian government is responsible. President Bashar Assad’s government denies responsibility.

Macron says the operation is limited to Syria’s abilities to produce chemical weapons. He is not giving details about what equipment is involved in the operation or what sites it is targeting.

__

9:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump is reiterating his call to have other nations take on more of the burden in Syria.

Trump says he has asked U.S. partners “to take greater responsibility for securing their home region, including contributing large amounts of money for the resources, equipment and all of the anti-ISIS effort.”

He says increased engagement from countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt can ensure that Iran does not profit from the defeat of the Islamic State group.

He adds that, “America does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria — under no circumstances” and says that, “As other nations step up our contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home.”

__

9:20 p.m.

Syria’s capital has been rocked by loud explosions that lit up the sky with heavy smoke as U.S. President Donald Trump announced airstrikes in retaliation for the country’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

Associated Press reporters in Damascus saw smoke rising from east Damascus early Saturday morning local time. Syrian state TV says the attack has begun on the capital, though it wasn’t immediately clear what was targeted.

Trump announced Friday night that the U.S., France and Britain have launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians and to deter him from doing it again.

__

9:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump is warning Russia and Iran about their association with Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s government, as he announces the launch of retaliatory strikes after an apparent chemical weapons attack last week.

Speaking from the White House, Trump says, “To Iran and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?”

Trump calls the two countries those “most responsible for supporting, equipping and financing the criminal Assad regime.”

Trump says, “The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep.”

He adds ominously, “Hopefully someday we’ll get along with Russia, and maybe even Iran, but maybe not.”

__

9:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is asking for a “prayer for our noble warriors” as he concludes his remarks announcing strikes on targets associated with the Syrian chemical weapons program.

Trump announced the strikes, in coordination with France and Britain, from the White House Friday night. He said the three nations have “marshaled their righteous power.”

Trump is also offering prayers for the Middle East and for the United States.

__

9:05 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he is “prepared to sustain” strikes against Syria until the use of chemical agents stops.

The United States, along with assurance from France and the United Kingdom, launched a response Friday against the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad days after his government allegedly used chemical weapons on its citizens.

But Trump says America does not seek “an indefinite presence” in Syria and will look to pull out its troops once the Islamic State is totally defeated.

Trump has signaled in recent weeks that, despite advice from his national security team, he wanted to accelerate the timetable of the withdrawal of American forces.

__

9 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the United States has “launched precision strikes” on targets associated with Syrian chemical weapons program.

Trump spoke from the White House Friday night. He says a “combined operation” with France and the United Kingdom is underway.

Trump says that last Saturday, Syrian President Bashar Assad deployed chemical weapons in what was a “significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime.”

__

8:55 p.m.

President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Friday night amid anticipation of a retaliatory strike for an apparent Syrian chemical weapon attack last week.

That’s according to a source familiar with the president’s plans, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump has said he will hold the Syrian government, as well as its Russian and Iranian allies, accountable for the suspected attack.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Friday afternoon that Trump “is going to hold the Syrian government accountable. He’s also going to hold the Russians and the Iranians who are propping up this regime responsible.”

___

5 p.m.

The U.S. Navy was moving an additional Tomahawk missile-armed ship within striking range of Syria as President Donald Trump and his national security aides mulled the scope and timing of an expected military assault in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack.

Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, said the president had not yet made a final decision, two days after he tweeted that Russia should “get ready” because a missile attack “will be coming” at Moscow’s chief Middle East ally.

The presence of Russian troops and air defenses in Syria were among numerous complications weighing on Trump, who must also consider the dangers to roughly 2,000 American troops in the country if Russia were to retaliate for U.S. strikes.